Mindfulness and Movement: Attuning to Safety and Connection

Chia-Ti will share her years of experience teaching movement, mindfulness, somatics, and resiliency building in New York City. She will address how she uses movement practices, including yoga (hatha, vinyasa, restorative) and qigong, which she offers to a wide range of age groups, including elders, adults, and teens, through community-based programs. Chia-Ti will share her personal journey of resilience - — from factors of developmental safety to learning how to move from anxious attachment to secure attachment in relationships as an adult. In her teaching, Chia-Ti emphasizes that presence, groundedness, and play are just as essential, if not more so, than the content itself, as they help create a transformative experience for her students. Chia-Ti’s wisdom about the body will be expanded in her interview with Resiliency Within. Chia-TI states, “When we have experienced trauma or chronic stress, our bodies may learn the habit of constantly bracing, constricting, and tensing. Bracing is a natural protection against threats. For example, we may get startled by a loud noise, and the body may respond by tensing up. But when there isn't a threat, can we develop a sense of softening and letting go? In other words, can we learn how to attune to safety within ourselves and our environment?” She will help us understand the connections between mind and body and how to understand our nervous systems. Chia-Ti believes that when we can attune to and access safety and connection, we can begin to support ourselves and others. We can increase our embodiment of resilience. We can trust, hope, and feel — these beautiful markers of being human.